Hundreds of foreigners arrested in Eastleigh

Hundreds of people, including children, were arrested in Eastleigh, an eastern suburb of Nairobi, early on Thursday morning in an attempted police crackdown on illegal foreigners.

Police arrested over 843 aliens, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, in the Kenyan capital, and recovered powerful communications equipment used by the aliens to communicate with relatives in their respective countries, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported on Thursday.

The arrests follow last week's mysterious landing of an aircraft at Wilson Airport, Nairobi, with 21 Somalis - allegedly being brought into Kenya illegally, for a fee - on board, which sparked a political row about the possible violation of Kenyan airspace and the need for increased control of aliens in Kenya.

"At about 1 a.m. [local time: 2200 GMT], they [the police] arrived on 2nd street, breaking doors and windows. They went from door to door, destroying property, and rounding up everyone into trucks," one Ethiopian refugee told IRIN on Friday.

"They stole money and mobile telephones, they messed up homes and stole gold and earrings from the women," she said, adding that the police had arrived brandishing saws to cut doors open, and fire extinguishers.

"They are supposed to ask for your mandate from UNHCR [the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees]," said another, "but they didn't give anyone the chance to produce their documents."

"I know someone whose hand was broken by the police. I saw police beating men's genitals, and I know someone who was stabbed with a bayonet," a female Ethiopian refugee told IRIN.

"They searched each and every room, they took away clothes and stole anything that looked new, and everybody was beaten," she said. "They forced their way in and started kicking and slapping. I was thrown against the door and the wall. Then I collapsed and vomited, and they left me there."

Some women had complained of being raped, this woman said, but she had not actually seen this happen.

"I can't call these people refugees. We are trying to flush out illegal immigrants," the Kenyan police spokesman, Peter Kimanthi, told IRIN on Friday morning. "We are not looking for genuine refugees who have registered with UNHCR, we are looking for the bad ones, who are illegal."

Asked about allegations regarding police brutality, he said: "That is a big lie. Anyone who makes such allegations is free to come forward and we will investigate the case. It is very easy to make allegations, but show me the evidence."

Kimanthi said he was not saying that Kenyan police officers were "angels", but that proof was required to substantiate any claims of violence used.

"The people who have been detained are being screened. Those without legal papers will be taken to court," he said.

"As soon as we satisfy ourselves that people are innocent, they will be released," he added, but could not commment on when this might happen.

Asked how people could prove their legal status if they did not have papers with them in detention, Kimanthi said the police would facilitate transport for the detainees to collect their legal documents. "We are dealing with human beings," he said. "We cannot mistreat them."

A spokesman from the UN refugee agency said that the matter of refugees who were in breach of the conditions of their asylum in Kenya - which would normally mean that they register with UNHCR and then go to the refugee camps in the north of the country - was purely one for the Kenyan police.